Politics Online: Tricky Terrain

Candidates Wonder: Blessing Or Curse?

WASHINGTON — The buzz on the blogs was all about Gen. Peter Pace, the Pentagon's top general, who called homosexuality immoral. Sen. Chris Dodd was outraged, and his campaign was ready.

As the Connecticut Democrat stood in a park across from his office, a staff member with a video camera taped his reaction.

``I, for one, think we ought to be repealing the `don't ask, don't tell' law,'' Dodd said, looking firmly into the camera.

One minute and 15 seconds later, a personal message from the 2008 presidential candidate was good to go onto his website, not to mention YouTube and the rest of the Internet world.

To date, Dodd's video message has been viewed more than 3,000 times -- a broader reach than he would get in any union hall or coffee shop.

The candidate is, as he must, campaigning 2008 style, making his way through an electronic world where no one really knows what will work. In fact, the experts say, candidates simply need to add electronic campaigning to all their other strategies.

``It's important to be engaged in the debates online because that's where various influentials spend time,'' said Matt Stoller, an editor at MyDD.com, a liberal blog, ``but that doesn't obviate the need for face-to-face contact.''

At the same time, said Joshua Levy, the associate editor at techPresident.com, which tracks candidate websites, candidates have to remember that ``the Web is the biggest public space there is.''

Campaigns like the ability to instantly put their candidate on the Web, using blogs or videos as a way to offer an unfiltered message.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's three-minute explanation of why he opposes the Iraq war has been viewed nearly 70,000 times. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's three-minute description of her ``road map out of Iraq'' has had more than 38,000 hits.

YouChoose '08, a politics page launched by YouTube on March 1, is a quick way to see all the candidates' official videos. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, has the most posted at 64.

Campaign advisers are effusive about the potential to talk directly to so many voters.

``The senator is our best messenger, and he can speak through unfiltered sources,'' said Hari Sevugan, Dodd's deputy communications director. ``He can just look into the camera and say what he believes.''

But there's a flip side to the Internet that makes campaigns shudder.

Ironically, they are learning, ``you can't control the message of your own campaign,'' said Jeff Jarvis, the director of the new media program at City University of New York.

Four recent clips have made that clear:

Nearly 98,000 viewers have watched a Fox News clip on YouTube covering Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden's explanation of his comments that Obama was the first black candidate to be ``articulate and bright and clean.'' That's almost nine times as many views as the most popular clip on Biden's website, a six-minute ``message to President Bush on Iraq.''

About 246,500 viewers have watched 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards combing his hair to the tune of ``I Feel Pretty.'' The most popular video on the Edwards website has been viewed less than half that many times -- a two-minute clip of him standing in New Orleans, wearing a work shirt as children behind him help rebuild the hurricane-stricken city.

Hillary Clinton mangling the National Anthem off-key has been seen 1.18 million times.

``Vote Different,'' where Clinton speaks to an audience of silent figures before a woman with a sledgehammer finally smashes the screen, has been seen more than 3 million times so far.

It dominated political buzz last week, particularly with its final message: ``On January 14, the Democratic primary will begin. And you'll see why 2008 won't be like `1984.''' These words then appear: ``BarackObama.com.''

The video -- a spoof of a famous Super Bowl ad for Apple Computers that portrayed IBM as a totalitarian Big Brother figure -- was created by someone who worked on Obama's website, apparently without the direct knowledge of the Obama campaign. But campaign officials would not criticize the video, and the blog world has been debating for days whether it helps or hurts Clinton and Obama.

``There could be some blowback for Obama,'' said Jarvis, if he looks like he's trying to have it both ways.

Campaigns are still grappling with videos they don't control. They routinely insist that serious voters go to their websites and listen to the clips on issues, that the big numbers are racked up when people are merely seeking entertainment, not enlightenment.

But they also see that the viewings are pulling people to their sites. Hits to Obama's website have soared in recent days, and he's approaching 2 million viewings, far more than anyone else.

Whether all the electronic frenzy will help or hurt anyone remains a huge unknown.

Among liberal bloggers, for instance, there's still uncertainty about who's the favorite.

``Do I think we set much of the agenda?'' asked Jane Hamsher, a Middletown author who founded the liberal blog firedoglake.com. ``Well, I don't think Hillary really needs us, she just needs us not to be against her.

``Likewise Obama. I do think there are other candidates to whom our support could be more critical,'' she said.

``Right now there is a pervasive `wait and see' attitude, a desire to see how things shake out before committing one way or another,'' she said. ``It's s a long time until November 2008.''